Barry Moore seeking to improve hurricane insurance protection for farmers

Rep. Barry Moore wrote a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack requesting an update on the Hurricane Insurance Protection – Wind Index Endorsement (HIP-WI) and amending it from an all-or-nothing system to a tiered system.

After listening to stories from farmers about the losses they’ve suffered from hurricanes, Moore is asking for a more improved system of administrating hurricane insurance funds.

Currently, the full value of a HIP-WI endorsement is only paid if a county or a neighboring county is within the area of sustained hurricane-force winds from a named hurricane based on data from the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Moore is requesting the system gets changed to a tiered system so that farmers can purchase protection from winds caused by a hurricane, even if the winds are below hurricane force in their county.

“I know firsthand the damage that a hurricane can do to a farmer’s crops, and fortunately, in 2020, many counties in the Second Congressional District of Alabama were able to take advantage of the Hurricane Insurance Protection made available to them,” wrote Moore. “However, the counties that were not triggered by this all-or-nothing system still had extreme losses but were not eligible for HIP-WI. If the product was expanded to include a tiered system, farmers could purchase protection from devastating winds caused by a named hurricane, even if the winds are below hurricane-force within their county.”

“We appreciate Congressman Moore’s steadfast support of farmers,” stated Mitt Walker, director of the Governmental and Agricultural Programs Department of the Alabama Farmers Federation. “He understands so much of what farmers face each growing season is completely out of their control, especially when it comes to weather events such as hurricanes. We appreciate his efforts to ensure farmers have a variety of risk management tools that are effective in their time of need.”